


The Desert is a Thirsty Motherfucker

by Graceless_Grace



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dehydration, Fever, M/M, Sickfic, gotta love him, lance gives away his water because why not, self-sacrificing idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 21:46:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10817382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Graceless_Grace/pseuds/Graceless_Grace
Summary: The paladins get stuck on a desert planet and Lance, being the self-sacrificing idiot he is, gives away his water, sip by sip. Consequences suck, don't they? Even with the best intentions, the desert still suck the life out of Lance.





	The Desert is a Thirsty Motherfucker

Three days. They had been stuck for three days. Keith was pissed, sure, but Shiro was growing more and more livid each day. After day one he stopped defending the castle’s inability and started focusing more, through the growing anger, on his fellow paladins.

Lance thought it was only fair to do his part, and share his water. Or, y'know, give it away completely.

Of course, to do this, Lance couldn’t just hand over his canteen. The others wouldn’t stand for it. Stupid, because what good were they dehydrated? If anyone has to go without water for a few days, it would make sense for it to be the weakest link in the chain.

So, he started discreetly. The first night he was on watch, and he poured a little in each bottle. The next day, he shoved his bottle in the hands of other paladins, forcing them to drink every hour or so.

Everyone felt accomplished - they had rationed their water quite nicely, and everyone was fairing just fine! Despite Keith’s snappy attitude and Shiro’s moody funk, everyone was doing alright.

Besides Lance.

He was a good actor, anyone could give him that after what came next.

Lance’s vision was blurry constantly by day two. By day three he couldn’t feel his tongue, it was so dry. So, so dry… He claimed he was homesick when he was asked anything, which was just once the first day, when he’d made the mistake of stumbling before sitting down.

Now he had it down pat.

Lance helped Hunk set up their minuscule camp and everyone gathered around the fire. He sat beside Hunk too, as he was one of the only Paladins not in a completely bitchy mood. Pidge was too tired to be truly happy, Keith kept snapping at everything, and Shiro… he was very un-Shiro in this moment.

His head was killing him, and Hunk offered a sympathetic shoulder for him to rest his head on. He couldn’t, not with this act of his, so he shrugged it off in favour of staring into the fire.

“I think Allura can get to us tomorrow,” someone said. It sounded like his leader, the one who went to space and returned with white hair and few memories.  
Someone else responds sarcastically, and Lance feels Hunk shake with dull laughter. He doesn’t look up from the fire, it’s gentle crimson flame coaxing him to sleep where he sits.  
—  
“Lance!” Keith snaps, not bothering to look. “Shiro. Asked you. A question.” lately, everything he says is through gritted teeth. “You could at least answer.”

There’s a stirring silence, followed by Hunk’s anxious voice. “Lance?” he turns towards his friend…

And finds him unconscious.

“Oh my god, Lance!”

Hunk scoops his skinny body into his arms, and cradles him close. Once he feels the heat rolling off Lance in sharp waves, he openly swears.

“He must be dehydrated,” Shiro explains. His bad mood is rapidly disappearing.

“Oh, man, he kept making us drink, who was making him?” Pidge asks, more to herself than anyone else. She latched onto her fellow paladins when she really missed Matt, and had gotten too used to the whole self righteous act of the older brothers in her life.

Hunk refused to let go of Lance. Even when they returned to the ship after another few hours, and found his fever off the charts, much to the dismay and confusion of Coran and Allura. Apparently Alteans tended to grow cold rather than warm when sick, and Hunk didn’t bother listening to their explanations. He sat with Lance for days, until he finally opened his eyes.

Hugging him tightly, Hunk, with tears trailing down his cheeks, mumbled a warning:

“Don’t ever do that again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Request from my sickfic side blog (tumblr), graceless-fever  
> I take requests! Hit me up either on my blog or here. ♡  
> Please don't forget to comment if you liked it!


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